And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against;
And Simeon blessed them - the parents, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set, х keitai (G2749)] - 'lieth,' or, 'is appointed:' compare Isaiah 28:16, "Behold, I lay in Zion," etc. Perhaps, this Infant's lying in his own arms at that moment suggested this sublime allusion.
For the fall and rising again of many in Israel: and for a sign which shall be spoken against. If the latter of these two expressions refer to the determined rejecters of Christ, perhaps the former refers, not to two classes-one "falling" from a higher to a lower, the other "rising" from a lower to a higher state-but to one and the same class of persons who after "falling," through inability to discern the glory of Christ in the days of His flesh, "rose again" when, after the effusion of the Spirit at Pentecost, a new light dawned upon their minds. The like treatment do the claims of Christ experience from age to age.